Jinhao X450 Ink Not Flowing Into The Feed

[Ein Verfasser]

I have a Jinhao X450 (marbled finish) that I got a while ago when I bought a couple of Chinese pens (one is my knock-about Hero 110 that's quite good). I avoid Chinese pens unless I need something that I can use when working in the lab or that can be knocked-about, be lost (or stolen). Given that, I don't usually pay more than $10 for them, and don't care much if they don't work.

 

But I have taken a liking to the very sturdy brass and enamel construction and the excellent M nib that I have gotten used to (though I greatly prefer F and EF nibs and usually avoid M or bigger because it is impractical to write calculations with them, and the fact that I simply really like EF nibs).

 

Unfortunately, after writing two paragraphs, a vacuum forms inside the converter and no ink at all flows into the feed/nib section. I end up having to turn the piston in and out to manually draw air in every ten minutes.

 

I took every single piece of the pen apart and soaked it in household bleach (it was fine, but please don't anyone soak their Montblanc in bleach! I DO NOT recommend trying this on any pen you spend more than $10 on! ). Cleaned every single channel and section with a little nylon brush. Everything was free of any contaminant or manufacturing residue.

Put everything back together perfectly.

 

Tested pen. . .

 

And the same thing happened. I can hear a slow bubbling sound as the air tries to get into the reservoir.

 

It is obvious that the feed system is not allowing for any air to enter. The system consists of a partially hollow feed with a little capillary feed that slips inside of it, it is this narrow little capillary feed that plugs into the tiny hole in the section and connects to the converter's reservoir. I don't think the design facilitates for any air to enter to stop a vacuum forming.

 

Does anyone else's X450 do this? Is there any way to fix it?

I would really like to find a way to solve the problem, as I have taken a liking to the pen.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[mhguda]

I'm not sure that I understand your description of the feed system, but usually when I have a problem like that, I add a tiny bit of dish detergent to the ink, in highly diluted form. One way would be to dip a toothpick into the bottle and then insert this toothpick into the converter. A better way is to take a drop and mix into a cup or so of tap water, and suck this mixture into the converter as if it were ink. Expel, then repeat, and afterwards, rinse out with ordinary water a few times. Of course this would mean that you empty the converter of ink first, although I've actually also sometimes just sucked a little of the detergent-water mixture into a converter that was partially filled with ink, and just tried the mix. It gave better flow, but sometimes the flow then gets too enthusiastic.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

[Sasha Royale]

I'm not sure that I understand your description of the feed system, but usually when I have a problem like that, I add a tiny bit of dish detergent to the ink, in highly diluted form. One way would be to dip a toothpick into the bottle and then insert this toothpick into the converter. A better way is to take a drop and mix into a cup or so of tap water, and suck this mixture into the converter as if it were ink. Expel, then repeat, and afterwards, rinse out with ordinary water a few times. Of course this would mean that you empty the converter of ink first, although I've actually also sometimes just sucked a little of the detergent-water mixture into a converter that was partially filled with ink, and just tried the mix. It gave better flow, but sometimes the flow then gets too enthusiastic.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

Please accept my gratitude. I flushed, scraped, and scrubbed my Jinhao feed system, with little positive result. Your idea improved the ink flow a lot. I think I can write twice as long, before having to tweek the converter. I think the big, fat nib and feed of the x750 and x450 are very wet, and the small diameter ink supply can't keep up with it. The smaller nib and feed of the x250 and x500 don't seem to have the problem. One of our FPN members says that the x450 did not exhibit this problem, once converted to ED. That makes sense.

[mhguda]

I'm glad it helped you! I know that frustration when you just can't get enough ink to that big fat nib... Have you tried deepening the feed channel? Although you want to be careful there, since that's a one-way street; once you've cut the material is gone. I had that happen to me once with a Guider Marala, and ended up having to actually replace the feed...

Happily, with Indian pens, that is not too difficult. They seem to be built on the same principle as the Noodler's pens: easily adjustable by a user. HTH!

[a_m]

One of our FPN members says that the x450 did not exhibit this problem, once converted to ED. That makes sense.

 

Can it really be converted to ED? How? The barrel is metallic.

 

My issue with the x450 is that though it can take the long cartridge, the cartridge itself gets stuck to the barrel - leaving me to use it with either the converter or the smaller cartridge.

 

Also, as to converter, x450 takes any standard converter - so if you have any other chinese FP or standard converter FP like Waterman etc, they would fit equally well.

[Ein Verfasser]

Giving the problems some thought,

 

I will remove the breather tube inside of the feed because it blocks air, and the feed does have an air channel which doesn't reach the little pipe connecting to the converter ink supply, so it will need a little hole drilled into it. I think that should be a solution to the flow problem,

 

But I also find the converter to have a very small capacity: it is used up in about 5-6 pages of writing. I don't mind that problem so much because I rarely write with a medium point, and don't use the pen often. My pen has a Baoer converter because the original clear plastic one broke, so I took one from a broken Baoer pen and it seems to have a very slightly larger capacity.

 

I also tried using mine as an ED, but the ink simply refused to flow at all, so I washed it out and am now trying my luck at modifying it.

[swanjun]

I have two x450s and one of them has this problem and the other doesn't. I've tried deepening the channel on the feed of the problematic pen, and that seemed to help with *some* inks, but with others, it'll just go right back to its drying-up ways. I haven't written with it in a long time, but next time I do, I'll make sure to use an ink known for its lubricating properties and see whether that might be the answer.

[Ceilidh]

Mine behaves this way as well. I read a thread somewhere on here about deepening the channel, but it seems to work for some and not for others. The pen is actually too heavy for me, so I've decided not to spend time trying to fix it. Too bad so many of them seem to be afflicted with this problem. They're nice looking pens and write very well - for a few minutes.

[Chris]

I took the breather tube out and deepened the channel in both an x450 and an x750 but the problem remained - all is fine until after half a page or so of perfectly smooth writing the flow dries up and a tweek of the converter is required.

I gave up and they both languish at the back of the pen drawer.

[mhguda]

I had a similarly intractable pen (handpainted Hero, hooded nib so you could not do very much. I tried with the ink, opening the tines, widening or narrowing the gap between nib and feed... nothing would take away the hard startingness of that pen. Wet ink, dry ink, it didn't matter. Once I had it going, it was fine, until the next time, even if it stood nib down when resting. In the end I decided I'd live with it like that, but play a little with the nib, and ground away a little of the material, to try to make it a stub...

It's now a very fine stub, but what's more, something happened and it hasn't had a hard start since! And I keep it standing nib up in my pen cup.

[Ein Verfasser]

I probably should tell of the fate of the pen:

 

I removed the 'breather tube', but that didn't help. So i took the feed, and just where the air channel is (that valley on the underside of the feed), I heated a pin on a flame and inserted it into the feed in this channel to make a tiny hole. This is so that air can find a way to bubble through the feed and into the ink reservoir, hence stopping the vacuum from forming and not letting ink flow.

 

The result was as follows: no vacuum and ink flowed without stopping, albeit the flow was much more dry and slow. Reinserting the breather tube did not help this new problem, it had no effect. I could have sorted that problem out by deepening the channel and adjusting the nib, but I had enough of spending more time than the pen was worth.

 

So I gave the pen away to a relative, along with a bunch of my other Chinese pens - they all seemed to have some small and annoying problem that made them unusable.

 

*Except my Hero 110 (after adjusting the nib): excellent everyday writer for carrying about to hazardous environments that I wouldn't take other pens into.